Questions tagged [short-stories]
For about a fictional work too small to be called a [novel] or [novella] - usually less than 10-20 thousand words and no chapters. Use to either identify the media on a [story-identification] question or disambiguate works where the tag covers the short story and its form in other media.. If you are looking for a particular anthology of short stories, use the [anthology-book] tag instead.
5,423 questions
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A poetical short story about bringing matter from the Sun back to Earth
I read this short story more than 50 years ago, and IIRC it was already a "great classic" at that time.
A spaceship is sent to the Sun to bring back some “Sun-matter" to Earth so one ...
- 30.9k
14
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Short story identification — aliens pick one human to decide Earth's fate; framed by two reporters in a bar
I read this story around 1990 in a library anthology or collection. The framing device is two reporters (male and female, I think) who meet in a bar a couple of times while first contact/unfolding ...
- 241
18
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1
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Short story set in a future where an authoritarian government has outlawed psychology and therapy
I read a short story in an anthology. It is set in a future where an authoritarian government has outlawed psychology and therapy. The protagonist is a former psychologist who agrees to treat a man ...
- 403
11
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1
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I'm trying to find the author of the short story "allies"
A short story about humans driven from earth. When they return many years, they find the aliens have been killed off by dogs.
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Person from Ancient Greece is brought via time machine to the present day
I would like to know the title of a science fiction story in which a person from Ancient Greece is brought via time machine to the present day, and then the world begins to behave according to this ...
29
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1
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A traditional tale (with a witch not called Baba Yaga) of non-Russian people who live in some places within Russia
I read this tale in a collection, at least 20 years ago. But is has a taste of a very old traditional tale from non-Russian minorities living within Russia.
There is a witch who has a name, which I ...
- 30.9k
7
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0
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106
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Late 1980s-early 1990s short story about a second American Civil War
A short story composed of a series of diary/log entries explaining the way the Second Civil War erupted in America. Tales about what started it, who the antagonists were, stories of specific battles ...
- 71
30
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The world is a Graveyard so I must leave it
This was a sci-fi short story I read at least 60 years ago. A man volunteers for a one-way mission to a distant planet. When the scientists ask him why, he explains that he is an Orthodox Jew who is ...
- 301
7
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0
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Time-travel story where a team disguised as 19th-century U.S. cavalry try to find where a Spanish expedition was defeated
I read this in the 1990s, probably (but not definitely) in an anthology.
I don't remember much of the set-up, but I do recall the protagonists were cosplaying as U.S. cavalry while trying to chase ...
- 160k
14
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1
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Farm girl and her chicken save the world
Set in a world where hordes of dinosaur like reptiles periodically sweep through eating everything in their path like locusts. When they come near her family's farm, the girl takes a chicken (...
- 12k
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Short story, maybe from a 2000AD special, with an enslaved human escaping an alien ship and finding an AI-run human-built ship hidden in an asteroid
I'm looking for a short story, I thought it might have been a Starblazer novel, but now I think it might have been in a 2000ad special. It starts with humanity enslaved (maybe after a war) by aliens, ...
- 81
22
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0
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"And we eat machines because we..."
"And we eat machines because we..."
This is the final line in a poem found at the end of an anthology of short science fiction stories for young people, published sometime in the 1970's, it ...
17
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1
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Sci fi short story from the late 1800's to early 1900's where people no longer walk
I read an awesome short story a while back and am trying to find it again. It was written, I'm pretty sure, in the late 1890s, but I can't remember for sure. It was about a man who lived in a society ...
- 179
9
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0
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1960-80s short story about rebirth in post apocalyptic future - radioisotope, changeling
I'm trying to track down a pre-1980s SF short story (I believe I read it in a 1980s anthology).
The details I seem to recall are: injured young woman in a post-nuclear field hospital has an “isotope” ...
- 91
14
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1
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274
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Story about using a force field to contain the pressure of the Jovian atmosphere
Looking for a sci Fi short story from around the 1960's or so, the plot has two sides, first a scientist that had discovered how to create a force field. The problem with the discovery is that as you ...
- 141